//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 (Finished) 
// Story: My Little Warehouse 13: Artifacts are Magic 
// by Lexicon 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 2



=30 Minutes Northeast of Ponyville=


The group walked through the various aisles of the warehouse. Twilight was constantly asking questions about the artifacts and why they are there. The artifacts she asked about included the Berlin Wall spray paint, which Pete was currently explaining.

“When a building is sprayed with it, the building slowly crumbles, though painting an anarchy symbol seems to make it go faster.”

“Is there a way to reverse it? And what’s an anarchy symbol?” Asked Twilight, since she did not know about some of the stuff from the human world.

“An anarchy symbol is a capital ‘A’ surrounded by a circle, with parts of is overlapping the circle. As for how to reverse it, you have to paint over the anarchy symbol with a peace sign, which is kind of hard to describe.”

As they walk, Pinkie bumped into one of the shelves, causing it to shake. “Oops,” she said. As the agents steadied the shelf, Myka told her, “Careful. A lot of stuff in here is likely to activate if it falls.” Unfortunately they didn’t get to it quick enough, and a dodge ball fell from one of the higher shelves.

When it hit the ground, it bounced back up and it continued bouncing like that on its own. “Not this again,” groaned Pete as he watched the dodge ball, having gone through a similar experience once before along with Claudia.

Twilight turned to him and asked, “Not what again?” When she took her eyes off the dodge ball, it hit her in the back of the head. When it resumed its bouncing, it split into two.

“That’s what,” answered Claudia. “Every time this thing hits someone, it multiplies. And the only way to stop it is to catch it.”

“Actually, Claudia, the word is somepony here in Equestria,” corrected Twilight, right before one of the dodge balls launched itself at her. Pete attempted to catch it and keep it from hitting her again.

However, he failed, causing it to hit him in the face. “Ow,” he said, as he watched the two dodge balls become three.

Pinkie watched them, her head moving up and down in the same rhythm the balls were bouncing in. “Oooh, is it having babies?” This got a chuckle from Pete, who had said nearly the same thing last time this artifact activated in the warehouse.

“The last time that this thing activated, it nearly beat us to death,” said Claudia, panicking slightly.

Pete also seemed a bit worried, though it was justifiable in that the dodge ball had nearly killed them last time it activated. Neither of them wanted to repeat that experience.

“I wonder....” Claudia trailed off as her horn began glowing.

A purple aura surrounded one of the dodge balls. All this seemed to do, however, is make the dodge ball much more agitated, as it began vibrating. The aura quickly vanished, and the ball split again, for a total of four dodge balls bouncing on the warehouse floor.

“Okay, so magic doesn’t work. I guess we’ll have to do this the old fashioned way.”

The dodge balls began repeatedly assaulting the ponies, quickly multiplying. Eventually, they all froze suddenly, and began moving into one point. That point was another of the dodge balls, held by Pinkie, who was standing on her back hooves.

“That was fun. We should do that again sometime,” said Pinkie. Everypony looked a bit dumbstruck at this.


~Warehouse 13 Intro~


Pete and Twilight recovered first, having learned some time ago that it was best not to try and follow the pink pony’s train of thought. The princesses recovered shortly after them. Pete and Twilight managed to get the attention of the other three.

“Guys, it’s best not to think about what Pinkie Pie says or does for too long. Down that road lies a broken mind. Trust me,” Pete told them as they rubbed their temples.

“Pete’s right. I’ve tried it, and I’ve gotten nowhere. I can’t even figure out her Pinkie Sense,” seconded Twilight. “And what was that that just attacked us?”

Pete took the dodge ball back from Pinkie and flew up to the top shelf as Artie began explaining what it was.

“That would happen to be the Baylor Dodge ball. You already saw that it can do. It hits those who aren’t paying attention to it, and can only be stopped by catching one of them,” he sighed, looking at the ponies. “It killed five Army cadets at Fort Baylor during training exercises.” He looked at the four Equestrian ponies. “That is why it’s locked up in the warehouse.”

Celestia and Luna nodded at this. Pinkie was looking at all the different artifacts on the shelves, seemingly not paying attention. Twilight, however, was her usual inquisitive self.

“Wait, so everything in here is dangerous? How do you find them all? And how do you get them here?” She would have asked more if not for Artie interrupting her.

“Not everything is inherently dangerous, or even dangerous on its own. But, everything in here is in here for a reason. As for finding them, I normally use various resources, but it seems that I don’t have access to them here, so I’ll have to use whatever is available.” He looks around before continuing, “Getting them here is what Pete and Myka do. They track them down, and bring them back.”

A few moments after Artie finished, but before Twilight could ask another question, Pete landed after returning the dodge ball to its place. "Pinkie, don't move," he told just after landing. The pink pony just gave him a questioning look. "There's an artifact on your head," he continued.

She reached one hoof up and took hold of the artifact. When she brought it down in front of her face, she asked, "A tea kettle?"

"That never ceases to amaze me with how it can do that," said Artie just now noticing it as well. "Pinkie, I want you to clear your head and don't think of anything." He disappeared down an aisle and came back a second later with a large opaque container.

"Okay," agreed Pinkie, opening the kettle. "Hey, it's empty. Why is it empty? Oh, I just remembered! I'll have to throw you four a welcome to Equestria party soon. I just wish I had more balloons." At that, the kettle starts to whistle. "Oh, and the royal guard can come, or at least Shining Armor and Princess Cadence." At this, a ferret climbs out of the kettle as it stops whistling.

Twilight and the princesses watched the ferret with curiosity as Myka grabbed it with magic. The agents were unfazed by the ferret, and Pinkie seemed oblivious to it, continuing with her rant.

"Oh, and you can come too, princesses. And Applejack can help me make the food." At the mention of the princesses, another ferret climbed out, but the kettle whistled when it came to the food.

Claudia got the second ferret, and Artie told Twilight and the princesses "Wish granting kettle," by way of explanation.

Upon hearing that, Twilight took the kettle from Pinkie saying, "I know what I'd wish for at the moment." To her surprise, a ferret came out, which she picked up with magic.

Artie took the kettle from her, and began taking it to the vat. As he trotted, he muttered something under his breath. As he muttered, the kettle began to whistle. He looked up from it, sudden realization on his face. He walked past the vat, dropping the kettle in as he went. He rushed down an aisle, quickly disappearing from sight.

"Let me guess," said Pete. "You wanted her to stop making wishes for a little while."

Twilight just nodded, which Pete takes as a cue to continue. "That was an impossible wish. For some reason, those don't get anything more than a ferret."

When he came back into view, he was human again. This earned him looks of curiosity from everypony present.

Myka was the first to notice something around his neck. "Artie, what's that?" she asked, pointing with a hoof.

Artie held up what looked like a pendant on an old leather cord. “This is the Amulet of Thoth, the Egyptian god of knowledge.” The amulet was an ibis head, with Egyptian hieroglyphs next to it vertically. “It allows the wearer to change between an animal form, and human form. Taking it off reverts the wearer to their natural state, though in this case that would be the pony form you put me in.” He says that while glaring at the princesses. “Too much use will cause the person to be stuck in a halfway state until the artifact can be neutralized.”

“Where did it come from, Artie?” asked Pete. “I don’t think we bagged that one.”

“This is one of the ones that came from Warehouse 2. I put it on a shelf while you were away hunting something else.”

"We'll explain later, Twilight," said Pete, anticipating her questions.

The purple unicorn closed her mouth, which she had barely opened before Pete spoke. She opened it again and asked, "What are you going to do with the ferrets?"

"We're going to have to put them in the ferret kennel," replied Artie.

Pete seemed to think for a moment. "Twilight, do you think Fluttershy would mind taking care of them?"

"I don't think she'd mind too much. And you have a ferret kennel in here?"

"Back when I first joined the warehouse, there were more agents," began Artie. "When they found out about the kettle, we ended up with a lot of impossible wishes. We needed a place to keep all the ferrets, so a kennel was added for them."

"Well, that's all for the tour if you'll be taking the ferrets out of the warehouse," stated Artie.

"It is time that we return to Canterlot," stated Celestia. “You are all invited to the castle for a tour, which will be followed by tea and cookies.” At the mention of cookies, both Pinkie and Pete perked up. “We will have a carriage sent to Fluttershy’s cottage. Twilight, would you let her know that she’s free to come as well?”

“Of course, princess,” replied Twilight.

“We must be going now,” stated Celestia. As her's and Luna's horns began to glow, Pete shouted, “Wait!” catching everypony off guard.

“Why hast thou shouted for us to wait?” asked Princess Luna, the shock of being shouted at causing her to slip back into her archaic speech patterns.

“It’s best that you don’t teleport, since it causes a bright flash of light, as well as all the energy it releases. Some of the artifacts are very touchy.”

“Pete’s right,” agreed Artie, “some of the artifacts are very easily spooked, and you already saw what the dodge ball can do. It’s best if you wait until you’re outside the warehouse to teleport.”

The princesses seemed to think about it for a moment, before both nodding. “Very well, we shall wait until we are outside,” replied Celestia.

The group travelled in silence back to Artie’s office, each lost in their own minds. Everypony was trying to process what had just happened and what they had just learned. Twilight was forming more questions to ask the agents about the warehouse later. Pinkie was being herself and planning them a party. Pete was as giddy as a schoolgirl on the inside. He was in Equestria, the dream of most bronies, and he had already met Twilight and Pinkie, as well as both princesses, Celestia and Luna. He was also on his way to meet Fluttershy, whom he expected wouldn’t turn the ferrets away. Claudia and Myka were both still wondering at it all, and trying to keep the ferrets from escaping their telekinetic grasp.

After several minutes, they arrived at the office. Artie went straight to the computer and sat down, hitting a button on a remote. “Go take care of the ferrets, and bring back any artifacts you come across. I’m going to try and figure out what’s missing.”

They all glanced at Artie before leaving the warehouse. Once outside, the Equestrian ponies breathed deeply. They weren’t used to the warehouse like the agents were, what with all its dust and must. There were very few places like that, one of which happened to be the unused dungeon beneath Canterlot Castle, and nopony ever went there, with very few exceptions.

After a couple of moments, the princesses looked at the others. “It is time we take our leave. We must prepare for your arrival and the tour, as well as send a carriage to pick you all up,” stated Celestia.

Pete bowed, telling them, “It was an honor meeting you princesses.”

"It was an interesting experience, Agent Lattimer," replied princess Luna.

"You can just call me Pete, Princess. Plus, it would probably seem odd to ponies who don't know about the agent thing."

"Hmmm, you have a point, Pete.” She seemed to be testing the feel of his name on her tongue. She still wasn’t entirely used to how informal most things were after the thousand years she had spent on the moon, though she was learning.

Celestia and Twilight both looked to the sky, checking the position of the sun. “We really must go, if things are to be ready for your arrival at the castle,” said Celestia. “We’ll have a carriage meet you at Fluttershy’s in approximately forty-five minutes.”

Twilight nodded at the time estimate. “That should be more than enough time, Princess.”

With that, the princesses vanished in a flash of light.


=50 minutes later, Canterlot Castle=


The five ponies, Fluttershy had decided to stay behind and help the ferrets settle in, climbed out of the carriage. They were greeted by a pair of royal guards, who simply said, "Follow us." Since the only one who had regularly walked the halls of Canterlot Castle, Twilight, followed the guards, they all did so.

As they travelled the castle halls, Twilight and Pete explained some of the more recent history of Equestria to Myka and Claudia, with Twilight occasionally giving brief summaries of more ancient history when that knowledge would be required to understand more recent events.

"I can explain more on Equestria's history later after the tour of the castle," offered Twilight. "The main reason I don't do so now is because we don't have that much time. In fact, the main dining hall should be around the next corner."

Right after Twilight said this, Pinkie stopped and shouted, "Twitchy tail! Twitchy tail!" This caused everypony else to stop and look at her.

When this registered a second later in Twilight’s and Pete's minds, they looked up and quickly took a step back. Less than a second after that, several large candles hit the floor where they were previously standing. A slightly aged smoke grey pegasus with a silvery mane and gold eyes hovered down to them and began picking up the remains of the candles.

"I'm sorry about that.  It's not too often I see anypony other than the guards coming through when I replace the candles." He squinted for a moment, looking at Twilight. "Twilight Sparkle, is that you?" He reached into his saddlebags, putting the candle pieces in and taking out a pair of glasses, which he then proceeded to put on. "So it is you."

Twilight smiled at him. "It's good to see you again, Mr. Hooves. And it's all right about the candles. It was an accident, and nopony got hurt, thanks to Pinkie."

Pinkie simply smiled and said, “It was nothing.” Myka and Claudia seemed to be about to start asking questions of her at this, but a quick glance from Pete told them he would explain later.

“How have you been, Twilight? Doing all right, I assume. I should probably let you continue on your way. I would love to catch up with you, young mare. You know where to find me when you have a spare moment.”

“I’ll do that, Mr. Hooves. I’ll see you later.” She waved to him as he flew off. After he was gone, she continued on her way to the dining room. “We don’t want to be late for tea,” she said over her shoulder as the rest of the group slowly picked up momentum.

"So what was all that back there about a twitchy tail?" asked Claudia of nopony in particular.

"I'm wondering that myself," stated Myka.

"That was Pinkie's Pinkie sense. I find its better not to wonder how she does it," answered Twilight.

Pete looked to the other two agents and told them, "Think of it like my vibes, only a lot more immediate and specific. A twitchy tail means falling objects, like those candles back there."

A few moments later, they passed through large double doors into a dining hall. There were stained glass windows on the wall to the right and straight in front of the group. To the left was a door smaller than the one they had just passed through and designed to be hidden flush with the wall, likely leading to the kitchen. In the middle of the room beneath a large crystal chandelier was a large table with several plates and teacups in place.

"It looks like we got here before the princesses," said Twilight, looking around. "Wait, I think I hear them behind us."

Everypony moved away from the doors, listening to the hoof falls coming towards them. The group had indeed made it to the dining hall before the princesses, but by a little less than a minute.

The princesses smiled at their guests as they walked to the table. "Please, take a seat," Celestia told them as the alicorns began sitting down.

Twilight took the seat closest to Celestia and across from Luna at the rectangular table. Pinkie sat next to Luna with Pete next to her. Myka ended up sitting across from him with Claudia between her and Twilight.

Right after they finished taking their seats, a couple of unicorns came out of the small door that was flush with wall, levitating trays piled with various types of cookies, including chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, sugar, and many others. They placed these on the table, returned through the door, and quickly came back with a few small tea kettles. They poured the princesses' tea first from one, setting it down near them when the cups were filled. They continued like this until all the cups were full, then left, closing the door behind them as they went.

The princesses' horns began glowing for a moment. As the light faded, Luna spoke. "We have placed a spell over this room to prevent anypony from overhearing this conversation, whether by intent or accident. Unfortunately, Shining Armor and Cadence could not make it, so we shall inform them of what they need to know of this meeting later." At this, she took a sip of tea as her sister continued for her.

"We have spoken about it, and we believe we have come up with a suitable cover story for your work. You will be new recruits to the royal guard who have been given a special assignment. Twilight will act as a liaison between you three and us." At this, Celestia took a sip, with Luna taking over again.

"You have permission to tell the truth to the other element bearers not present at the table, as they will likely try and find out from Twilight and Pinkie here. Does this sound acceptable to all of you?"

Pete and Pinkie nodded, each swallowing a mouthful of cookie. The pair of them had almost ignored their tea in favor of the cookies. The other three ponies all nodded, with Twilight saying, "It won't be a problem, Princesses."

"Now that we have that settled, why don't you three tell us more about your world and the artifacts you work with?" Luna asked looking at the warehouse agents.

"Well," began Pete, thinking for a moment. "Artifacts are made when people do extraordinary things, or under other circumstances such as great amounts of emotion concentrated in one area. We have a wallet that belonged to a famous escape artist who would put himself into a number of dangerous situations, and get out of them alive. Then there was the dodgeball, which was actually responsible for five deaths." The equestrian natives winced at this.

"There's also a disco ball that puts on a small light show and starts playing music when activated," added Myka. "That was created in an old disco club, due to all the emotions going around in there."

As all this was being said, Celestia's face slowly changed from one of general curiosity to that of somepony who doesn't like what they're hearing. Luna also began shooting looks at Celestia that could only be described as jealous. The changes to both Princesses' facial expressions seemed to go unnoticed by the others.

“Don't forget Lewis Carroll's looking glass. That one isn't very nice, what with that demon of a girl trapped in it," stated Claudia.

Twilight looked between the agents before asking "Why is she trapped?"

Myka, Pete, and Claudia looked at each other for a moment, deciding who would answer. "Well, its like this. She killed a bunch of people, and the agents trapped her in the mirror. We're not entirely sure on all the details. Artie likes to keep us in the dark on some of these things," Pete said in response  to the question.

At this point, Celestia stood up and started speaking. "I have changed my mind.You will not be allowed to hunt down the missing artifacts. Instead, that job shall fall to the guard. You three are too dangerous and will be taken to the dungeon to await sentencing."

At this point, Luna also stood up, and started using the royal canterlot voice. "No, sister, they will find their artifacts and bring them to me. You, however, shall spend a thousand years on the moon while the ponies live under my night."

Luna's form seemed to flicker for a moment, with what appeared to be Nightmare Moon. The only two who really noticed were Twilight and Pete.

Out of the corner of her eye, Claudia noticed the tea cups and teapot that the princesses had been drinking from. "Pete, does that look like what I think it looks like?"

Both Pete and Myka looked to the tea set as well. "Yeah, that looks like her tea set alright."

"Who's tea set?" asked pinkie.

"Beatrix Potter's. She was a children's author in our world. And if that is her tea set, then we've got problems." Upon seeing the expressions on Twilight's and Pinkie's faces, Myka continued. "Drinking from her tea set brings out a person's creativity, but also their darker side. When we looked at some of her original drafts of a story, the main character was a vicious killer rabbit."

Pinkie and Twilight looked shocked at this. "What can we do about it, then?" asked Twilight.

"Last time this happened, it wasn't too hard to stop once we knew what was happening. But that was also a completely different scenario," stated Claudia.

Pete and Twilight adopted expressions that seemed to indicate they were thinking.

"What about the Elements?" Twilight asked of Pete.

"Maybe," he said. "But the problem is getting the others here, since they're still in Ponyville."

"You're right. And princess Celestia has them locked up so only she can get them." Twilight sighed. "What else can we do to stop them, though?"

"Could somepony please explain what these Elements are to those of us who don't know?" Asked Claudia.

"Twilight and I will explain later, once we've dealt with the crazy princesses," replied Pete.

Celestia picked up on the crazy princess part, and turned to glare at Pete. "Who, might I ask, are you calling crazy? Because I certainly know it isn't me, is it?" she asked in a threatening manner.

Pete swallowed. "No, of course not princess Celestia. I would never think of doing such a thing."

Celestia continued to glare at him a moment, then looked away, thoughtful. Her expression slowly changed into what could only be described as a malicious grin.

"I have decided on your sentence. You will be subjected to use of the elements of harmony, for a time. After they have driven you mad, I will strip you of my camouflage spell if they don't do it for me. Once that has been done, you will be presented to my subjects as the monsters you truly are."

"No, you shall not, sister, for I will use them to banish you to the moon, as you did to me a thousand years ago!"

With glares at each other, both princesses vanished in flashes of light. Pete quickly turned to Twilight.

"Can they use the Elements without the Bearers?" he asked her.

She shook her head. "I don't think so. Princess Celestia told me that her and Princess Luna were no longer connected to the Elements when Discord returned."

Myka and Claudia looked between the two ponies. "You better explain after all this is over, because we have no idea what you're talking about," stated Myka.

Before anypony else could say anything, a bright flash announced Celestia's return. Floating around her were five necklaces and a tiara, each with a different symbol in gems on it. Celestia appeared to be quite angry and seemed to have just been shouting something.

“Looks like you were right," whispered Pete to Twilight.

Celestia's head turned to look at the table. She lowered her horn, and the tiara floated over to rest upon Twilights head as the necklace with the balloon shaped gems clasped around pinkies neck. With a slight shift of her head, Celestia was pointing her horn towards a blank wall. With a burst of light from it, four ponies materialized.

One was an orange pony with a blonde mane and tail. Her main and tail both had ribbons holding them at the end, and she wore a stetson hat. Her cutie mark was a group of three apples. To her left was a cyan colored pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail, who’s cutie mark happened to be a rainbow lightning bolt coming out of a cloud. On the other side of the orange pony was a white unicorn with a purple mane and tail, and three diamonds for her cutie mark. The fourth pony was on the left of the cyan pegasus. She was also a pegasus, but yellow with a pink mane and tail. Her cutie mark happened to be three pink butterflies.

“Hey, what’s the big idea, teleporting me in the middle of a race?” asked the Cyan pegaus as she took note of her surroundings.

“Uh, Rainbow Dash, you might want to watch what you say. I think it was Princess Celestia that teleported us here,” said the orange pony, looking at the princess.

As this was going on, the necklaces that matched the four new ponies clasped around their necks. A pink butterfly for the yellow pegasus, a red lightning bolt for the pegaus identified as Rainbow Dash, and orange apple for the cowpony, and a purple diamond for the white unicorn.

As the necklaces clasped around the ponies’ necks, another flash of light announced a new arrival. Instead of Princess Luna, however, it was Nightmare Moon. Upon seeing her, the four new ponies took up what seemed like fighting stances, with Pinkie and Twilight joining them.

“Hit them both,” said Twilight, matter of factly.

“But why?” asked the yellow pegasus in a quiet voice.

“I’ll explain after, Fluttershy. Right now, we have to stop them both.”

With that, it seemed the discussion was over. The six ponies closed their eyes, and began floating upwards. After they got to a height of a few feet, twilight opened her eyes to reveal them glowing white. A moment after that, a rainbow beam shot from the Elements of Harmony, striking the princesses. When it faded, the six ponies gently touched the ground again.

Both princesses, who had been knocked to the floor, slowly got to their feet. As they did, they looked apologetically at the ponies in the room with them.

“Now, can somepony please explain to me what the hay is going on?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“It would seem that there is a lot that needs to be explained. Please, take a seat,” Princess Luna said in response to Dash’s question.


~Warehouse 13 Credits Song~


Next time: Explanations! Learning where the Agents will stay! Mischief and mayhem! And high chances of an artifact making an appearance!